Yahoo turns on new e-mail spam filters

SUNNYVALE: Yahoo said the new version of SpamGuard cut complaints about unwanted messages by 40 percent in its own internal testing, even as the volume of spam that it sees had risen dramatically.

"We actually caught five times more spam in February of this year then we did in February of last year," Lisa Pollock, a senior director of messaging products at Yahoo.

The new filters are in place for all users, Pollock said, whether they use Yahoo's free e-mail or pay for one of its subscription mail services.

Yahoo has made a hard push over the last 18 months to expand beyond its free roots into premium services that are more reliable generators of revenue than its traditional model of advertising sales.

An e-mail provider's ability to block junk mail has become a major promotional tool as companies try to sell their services. Microsoft Corp.'s MSN Internet access business has a TV commercial devoted entirely to its latest spam protection systems.

Market research firm International Data Corp. has estimated that some 7.3 billion spam messages are sent worldwide every day.

® Reuters